Arsenal v Liverpool: match preview

And Michael Duberry has been talking about his memories of life at Chelsea after the death of Matthew Harding in a helicopter crash in 1996:

He was always around the place, he was so popular. Money was no object yet he was seen as one of the fans; probably equivalent to Roman Abramovich sitting in the Shed End nowadays. So Matthew’s death sent a shock and disbelief through the whole club.

More here:

Michael Duberry on football after tragedy: ‘I tried to focus but you couldn’t ignore it’

Neil Lennon: there is a big problem with anti-Irish racism in Scotland

Here’s David Wagner on Huddersfield’s travails, and the prospect of beating Fulham. “With one win,” he says, “everything can look different”:

We have shown a lot of good performances - not last weekend against Watford but the weeks before. We have shown a lot of good things in our game. The players have shown the right spirit. We got unbelievable support home and away from our supporters.

But we haven’t won now in this season so far, and it’s now the next opportunity, a big opportunity for us, against Fulham - a team which I absolutely respect. I’ve seen them yesterday live, I was at City. For sure we have to be at our best.

But I think it makes it even more important that we are focused on us, and we know our strength, we know with the support from the stands we can do this extra yard which is unbelievably important for our game, and this is the moment where we would like to turn it around. And with one win, as we all know, everything can look a little bit different.

Newcastle v Watford: match preview

The Fiver | One giant leap for all of Arsenal-kind?

“What’s a monthly ethics bonus, why do players get it and what do they get it for?” wonders Andrew Benton, having read (see below) that Marco Verratti is to forfeit some of his.

I imagine that players got tired of being fined their actual wages for their occasional misdemeanours, so someone had the cunning idea of giving them extra money for not committing misdemeanours, so when they are fined they are not losing money they have earned, which they dislike, but not getting money they haven’t, which feels a bit better. I could be wrong, mind, and normally am.

I know him from a long time ago. He trained my hometown team Osasuna. He is a coach with a lot of recognition in England and Spain. Everybody knows he is a great coach. He always shows it at all the teams he has been.

They are a good team, they have a very good coach. Newcastle are looking for their first win, they are working very hard to try to get it and we need to be ready for a difficult game, for a tough game. All the games they are playing, they are playing with the option to get a better result. I am sure in the next game they will try again.

The Paris St Germain midfielder Marco Verratti has been fined by his club after being stopped for drink-driving by police in France.

PSG said in a statement on Friday that Verratti had been stopped at a roadside check in Paris in the early hours of Wednesday morning and was found to have a blood alcohol level above the legal limit.

French newspaper L’Equipe reported that the 25-year-old Italy international was detained by police who placed him in a “sobering cell” before releasing him. The report added that he would be charged at a later date.

“Under the rules applicable to the contracts of all our players, Marco Verratti will be deprived of a portion of his monthly ethics bonus,” PSG said.

Yes this does indeed appear to work. And it seems the players aren’t similarly bemused, so it’s all good.

GerardAnthonyB (@GerardAnthonyB)

@Simon_Burnton One of the unintended benefits of having Unai in charge is that his (valiant) attempts improving his English ensure the footie correspondents are routinely bemused while the opponents are given nothing to help their preparations #afc

A lengthy article about the relative merits of north- or south-facing cockerel sculptures can be found on Tottenham’s website here, but I thought the debate was important and interesting enough to quote a little bit here. The headline news, though, is that the club has reviewed its cockerel-positioning policy:

Our original designs had the new Cockerel facing North, overlooking the stadium bowl – this resonated given our proud North London heritage and the fact that the Cockerel that sat on top of The Lane’s East Stand also faced in this direction from 1958.

Interestingly, when this Cockerel was replaced due to weather damage in the 1980s, it was placed facing the opposite direction, South, with its right flank towards the pitch, resulting in strong feelings from fans being expressed that the Cockerel should be repositioned back to how it was. The Cockerel was subsequently repositioned and remained facing North until the Finale of White Hart Lane.

This influenced our initial thinking in terms of which direction the new Cockerel should face, particularly as it will not be sitting on either the East or West Stand. We were also aware though that the Cockerel that sat on top of the Lane’s West Stand, however, faced in the opposite direction - South. In fact, from 1909, when the Golden Cockerel was first seen at the Lane, it resided in this position before it was moved to the East Stand 49 years later.

Mauricio Pochettino has sought to calm the nerves of jittery Spurs fans, insisting “I want to feel the glory with Tottenham”.

After another tumultuous 10 days for Spurs, rumours began to circulate this week linking Pochettino with a move to managerless Real Madrid. Speaking ahead of his Premier League fixture with Wolves, the manager did not address the rumours directly, but called for renewed patience as the club seek to achieve ‘the last level’.

“We are very close to creating, in terms of facilities, one of the best clubs in the world”, Pochettino said. “Of course all have different costs to pay. Sometimes to win titles today is difficult, for many reasons that you and our fans know very well. But sometimes patience is short and frustration is there. I think we are so close to reaching the last level but we need to have that patience that makes us stronger

“I think that the period today in the club in Tottenham is so exciting. If you look backwards, it seems like we have been at Spurs for 20, 30 years because it was so tough and the moments that we shared were so intense. But I think we are in the middle of a transition and I don’t believe it’s the end of something.

“When I arrived at Tottenham the first video that Daniel showed me had a message, ‘when we are talking about Tottenham Hotspur, we are talking about the glory.’ I want to feel the glory with Tottenham. I think when I watch video from the 1960s, it’s very emotional and I think it would be fantastic to deliver that moment again for our fans. But first of all we need to finish the stadium, move in, make home.”

Tottenham announced a further delay to the new White Hart Lane stadium last week, with the ground now not set to be ready until 2019. The bad news punctuated two deflating results, a Champions League draw against PSV Eindhoven being followed by league defeat against Manchester City. But Pochettino’s team bounced back in midweek when they knocked West Ham out of the Carabao Cup, while Dele Alli also signed an extended contract with the club.

Asked if the midfielder’s deal sent out a message about the direction Spurs are travelling in, Pochettino said: “In the next few years we will see if it’s a statement. I think it’s important for him to improve his salary, important for the club to reward him. But at the end, extending the contract or not, he was still with a big contract a long contract. I think for Dele it’s a very good thing.”

Slavisa Jokanovic has meanwhile insisted that he is the right man to lead Fulham away from the relegation trap door:

This kind of situation is part of football. I am not here three days, I am here three years and the board must have some kind of opinion about my work. From my side, I have the confidence, and believe in my job. People around me are professional and we don’t try to make some crazy things.

We know it’s not an easy job ahead of us, we must be brave and encourage the team not to stop, never give up. My experience in this club - this is my fourth season here - and always it was complicated and always we reached the target at the end of the season.

We met Mike Ashley - and they didn’t know him - for a dinner that was supposed to create a good atmosphere, so his first impression is something that you cannot control. But I think his message - and I was talking to him this morning - is just try to keep everybody together, try to work hard.

I think he was trying to be positive, trying to send the right message to everyone. Okay, there are things off the pitch you cannot control when you meet one person at a dinner for a couple of hours. It’s not that you are having an opinion about what has happened in the last 11 years. He’s not trying to do that. It’s just a moment and that’s it. You have to understand that he’s a young player and he had this first impression.

Cardiff City v Leicester City: match preview

Nuno Espirito Santo has been asked for his opinion of his Spurs counterpart Mauricio Pochettino. Shock news: he thinks he’s good.

Success cannot be measure with the number of titles. The how is very important. Tottenham are very competitive. What I admire is what I see on the pitch and I see a very good team. I know him and I admire him. The quality of the work they’ve been doing is amazing. The core of the squad, the amount of success they have had.

This just in from Romania, where a third-tier derby in Craiova has turned bonkers:

Emanuel Roşu (@Emishor)

Incredible stuff in the 3rd tier derby between the two Universitatea Craiovas!!! The visiting group of ultras have set their stand on fire!!!! 1-1 with a few minutes left in the game. Surreal stuff!! What a CRAZY game. Away team called 'visitors' by the hosts. pic.twitter.com/Aco9BezEdJ

News from Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri: Eden Hazard is fit to play but probably not the entire match, Ross Barkley “has great quality, technical quality [and] quality from a physical point of view” and “is becoming a very, very important player for us”. And he has finally picked a captain:

The captain is Cahill, and if he’s not on the pitch it’s Azpilicueta,. Our captain is Cahill because Cahill was the captain last season and I have spoken with his mates, and everybody told me that he was really a very good captain. For me Cahill is very important on the pitch but also off the pitch.

Tottenham could be in trouble, midfield-wise, against Wolves on Saturday. Eric Dier tweaked his thigh against Man City on Monday and will be out for a few weeks, while Victor Wanyama did something unfortunate to his left knee in the Carabao Cup two days later (and, incidentally, not enough has been made of the fact they had to play twice in three days this week), so Joao Moutinho and Ruben Neves might be doing their stretches with a little more relish.

So does this mean Harry Winks and Mousa Dembele in the middle? Probably: alternatively Poch could get funky and try Kieran Trippier there, or maybe Jan Vertonghen. What do you reckon?

David Sharpe, grandson of Dave Whelan and boy chairman of Wigan, will step down from his position when the takeover of the club by the cuddly-sounding International Entertainment Corporation is done and dusted next week.

“My grandfather will of course have his own words,” Sharpe said, “but I would just like to state what a privilege it has been to follow in his footsteps. He is Wigan through and through and his passion for Wigan Athletic has never flickered.”

IEC will pay £22million for the Latics, and it’s perhaps a sign of what football has become that it’s almost a sum of money where you think “I could’ve had a whipround and got involved in that...”